You Tried
by xxJustJoolsxx
Summary: Lovino Vargas wanted this date to work. To be successful. To impress her. But it all fell apart on him. And the restaurant was on fire. Spamano (fem!SpainxRomano), Office AU-ish, Possible smut in the end, but Rated T for now.
1. Chapter 1

WOAH GUYS IT'S BEEN OVER A YEAR SINCE I LAST PUBLISHED SOMETHING!

I am so sorry! A lot had happened during that time and I honestly lost almost all of my inspiration. I tried to write but I kept on losing that writing spirit… :/

Fortunately, I finished the big bad chunk of my summer work and I have some free time to write! I had promised myself to write some Spamano but I never got around to it until now.

On that note, here it is! Hope you enjoy!

((DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hetalia and all that jazz. And if you don't want to see smut, I suggest you turn away now so you don't get too invested in this))

* * *

He tried.

He _really_ tried.

He wanted this date to work. To be successful. To impress her. But it all fell apart on poor Lovino.

And the restaurant was on fire.

((Four days earlier))

The office was a joke.

Hetalia had become one of the world's leading PR firms in the past few years. With business booming, you would think that the only people hired here were hard-working, ambitious people who achieved their goals with strong teamwork and uncanny reliability.

Unfortunately, this was not the case on the 2nd floor of Hetalia's building. Of course, Hetalia had plenty of hard-working PR agents…they just avoided the 2nd floor as much as possible. The 2nd floor's workers were for all of the workers who either were just stepping onto the first rung of their career ladders, were hired because they could put the proper files in their proper cabinets, or were too downright lazy to get a promotion.

Lovino Vargas had unfortunately landed himself a spot in one of the 2nd floor's bland offices. Due to his history of getting overly angry at co-workers, the company only agreed to let him work there as long as he took four weeks of anger management classes before he would be considered for a promotion. Being quite pissed off about this, Lovino refused to take those classes right away. Almost a year later, he still hadn't taken the class. And he was still in that same grey cubicle.

Over the months, Lovino really grew to hate his cubicle neighbors. Across from him was Herakles, who slept all. The. Time. One time, Lovino tripped over him because he had fallen asleep on the floor (and Lovino was carrying a VERY important stack of papers which flew everywhere after he fell. And to think Herakles still didn't wake up!). He asked around to see if he maybe had narcolepsy or something, but it turns out he was just really lazy. And everyone still seemed to like him. In fact, office girls flocked to him whenever he was awake, which caused Lovino to get irritated from all of the ruckus. And to make Lovino hate the bastard even more, he caught him having sex with one of the interns. Herakles was so nonchalant about the rant he received that Lovino figured he should just forget about it.

As if Herakles wasn't irritating enough, he had to deal with Julchen, the girl at the cubicle next to him. At first glance, she didn't seem so bad. Besides the beyond blonde white hair and shocking violet eyes behind her black-framed glasses, she looked like a diligent working girl who kept to her cubicle and hardly ever bothered Lovino.

She only _looked_ like that.

The exact minute that the clock struck lunch break, Julchen would whip her glasses off and let out an obnoxious sigh of relief. Within seconds of that, her friends would crowd around her desk with fast food and drinks to complain about work and gossip about their weekends. Quite loudly.

It all drove Lovino absolutely crazy. So why didn't he quit? Why did he put up with the office's constant smell of paper, pen ink, room-temperature Starbucks, and cheap cologne? Why did he ignore Herakles' alarming amount of cat paraphernalia and constant sleeping on the job? Why did he deal with the vending machine that always stole dollar bills? Why did put up with Julchen and her friends' cackling laughter? Better yet, why didn't he just move to another cubicle?

Because of one person.

No, not because of Julchen, she was the cause of the throbbing headaches Lovino suffered. He was sinking into his chair, looking at the clock on his computer. Lunch break was just a mere two minutes away. He needed to calm down, put in his earplugs to help himself drown out the loud trio next door. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. Good, he could feel himself calming down. So far so good. At this rate, he could almost crack a smile…

"Guess who brought donuts!" He suddenly heard an enthusiastic heavy French accent say. The sound alone ruined Lovino's steps towards tranquility and he opened his eyes in frustration. He looked back at the computer clock. Seriously? It wasn't even twelve yet!

"Perfect, girl! I haven't eaten since breakfast!" Julchen said in her terribly loud voice.

Lovino put his head in his hands. This could not be serious…

Francine Bonnefoy dropped the box donuts with a smack on the desk. The rustling of the box opening was driving Lovino absolutely crazy. "We're in luck today. The cashier was hitting on me and he gave me some extra donuts," he heard her say.

"Wait, at the shop across the street?" Julchen asked.

"_Oui_, why?"

There was a pause, "The cashier there is a girl!"

There was another pause, then the two burst out in their shrill laughter. Lovino could feel himself turning red with anger. He was standing up to say something to those two when another pair of heels clacked their way to the next-door cubicle.

"Oi, were you two really starting break without me?!"

It was her.

The reason he still worked in that shithole of a cubicle.

Carmen Fernandez Carriedo always looked enthusiastic. Her wavy brown hair was pulled back in a stylish yet professional way, which brought out her bright green eyes. Her button-down shirt with pinstripes and black pencil skirt made her look so well put together. She was walking to Julchen's cubicle carrying a carton of three cups of coffee. The other two quickly got up to take their coffee. Lovino could hardly look away from Carmen and her glowing olive skin. When she showed up, it was like all of their loud voices turned into the most irrelevant white noise…

"Lovino, you okay there?" Julchen asked, punching through the white noise as if it was a glass wall.

"Uhh…" oh shit, Lovino had been standing there and staring at the trio the whole time. He was about to yell at Julchen and Francine for being too loud, but Carmen arriving had sidetracked him. Now, they were just staring at him. Julchen looked mildly annoyed with him, Francine looked confused, and Carmen just looked at him with those eyes. Her mood remained unaffected by Lovino's unintentional interference. However, her eyes being on him made him flustered. "I…Um….What are you talking about?! Of course I'm okay! Why would you accuse me of that?! I was getting up to tell you all to shut up some of us are trying to work here! Now if you excuse me, I need water!" He said strung together into one sentence before spinning on his heel to stomp off to the water cooler.

Lovino made it there safely, though he almost crashed into Toris, the guy from a few cubicles down who always found himself getting coffee for the scary guy on the 4th floor. Lovino's presence made the chatty group of co-workers go silent before they left the area. Lovino grimaced, knowing his personality definitely didn't make him the most likeable person in the office. Normally, it didn't bother him that much, but that certainly wasn't the case, as he was going through one of his more vulnerable moments. Leaning against the cooler, he put his face in his hands. Yet again, he had absolutely botched a chance to talk to Carmen. How was it that he could go to some bar and flirt it up along with his brother, but all of his charm flew out the window when he tried to say something smooth around her? It frustrated him to the point where it was actually feeding his headache. With a long, drawn out sigh, Lovino took a cup and started to pour water from the cooler. His eyes watched the water pour out and smack against the walls of the paper cup, watching it fill with a dreary look of defeat in his eyes when someone approached him from behind.

"You know, walking off like that doesn't make it look like you're okay,"

Lovino looked up, turning his head around. Sure enough, Carmen was standing right behind him. Her cheerful face had a hint of concern hiding in her features. Nevertheless, she looked even more beautiful up close. She had the smallest dimples; Lovino could have kicked himself for not noticing them earlier. Realizing he needed to say something, he cleared his throat. "Ahem, what do you mean? I'm fine?" Yes, he said the words "I'm fine" like a question. Yet another reason to mentally kick himself.

"Lovino, you might want to stop pouring the water," she informed him.

Lovino looked back down at the cup of water which had indeed been completely filled and was now overflowing onto the cuffs of his shirt sleeve. "Ah shit," he muttered to himself. "Just my luck…"

Carmen only laughed, a sound he never really got to hear by itself, "Don't worry it's just water! And if you're having a bad day, get what's bothering you off of your chest. When you just talk about how you feel, it's like a whole ton of weight is lifted off of your shoulders!" she cheered him on.

Lovino huffed, "It's not that big of a deal, I guess," he began. "Working here is pretty stressful. I always get so sick of looking at that fucking computer screen all day…"

"Oh, don't worry _mi amigo!_" Carmen responded, reassurance in her voice. "Getting over that is no problem!"

"Really? How so?"

"Well, I don't know about you," she began, pushing a stray lock of hair that had fallen out of her updo. "But I like to think about things that make me happy, like tomatoes!"

Lovino raised an eyebrow, "Tomatoes?" What the hell was so significant about tomatoes?

"Si, I own my own my own tomato garden back home," she said, her smile brightening. "I think about it whenever I feel the workload pulling me into a slump, so I always stay positive!"

"Really? Well I guess I never thought of anything like that." Lovino mused. Was he really having a conversation with his dream girl?

"It helped me so much! The boss said he liked my attitude so much that he gave me a promotion! It's so cool, only I'll have to move away from you and the _chicas_, but…" she started to mutter the last few words so he couldn't pick up what she was saying.

"What was that?" he asked, intrigued.

"Oh, nothing!" she said, shaking off the subject.

"No no no, what is it? Tell me," Lovino prodded. Carmen got silent. Goddamnit, had he gone too far and ruined all of his progress?

After a really awkward pause, Carmen looked up at the clock, "Looks like break is almost over. Guess I left the other two alone for a bit too long." She was about to leave. Lovino had really done it. He blew his one perfect chance to get to know Carmen. His charms had failed to show themselves yet again. If there was only a way that he could fix all of this. She was about to leave before—

"Well if you won't tell me now, then I suppose we could talk about it over dinner," he suddenly said. Right after the words slipped from his mouth, he froze. He just asked her out on impulse!

Oh god, Carmen looked like she was caught off guard! "…_Que_?" she asked.

"Umm…" Lovino stammered, knowing he messed up. "I-I didn't mean it like that! I meant to say, um—"

"Sure,"

"….What?" Lovino couldn't believe his ears.

"A date? Yeah, that sounds so fun! I'd love to go!" She actually looked excited. "Wow! How about on Friday?"

"Friday is perfect," Lovino said, his voice still shaky from surprise. "I'll pick you up at seven then?"

"Seven is perfect!" Carmen said. "Where should we go?"

"Where should we go? Well I know this one place, I don't know if you—"

"Great! Can't wait for it!" she interrupted, saving him from babbling on. "We have to get back to work though," Carmen began to leave again, waving. "But I can't wait until Friday now! See you then!"

After Carmen left, Lovino stood in shock. He finally asked Carmen out! He rushed to the bathroom to splash to check and see if this was all real. After taking a splash of cold water to his face and looking in the mirror, Lovino finally cracked a smile. He had his charms all along after all!

Walking back to his cubicle, Lovino had a newfound positive attitude, one that definitely puzzled his cubicle neighbors who often got to experience the worst of Lovino's grumpiness. He sat at his computer and got right to work. He didn't even make a single complaint about Julchen, who was still eating her donuts and texting after break, or Herakles, who had actually let a stray kitten into the office during break and had half of the office's female interns crowding around his cubicle to see it. Behind his façade of working, Lovino was already planning how he would make the date as perfect as possible; he was going to get the perfect food at the perfect restaurant with the perfect scenery and make sure it was the most perfect night that either of them had ever experienced in their lives.

He just wanted her to remember their date.

And sure enough, _she would._

* * *

And that's it for the first chapter! I have a feeling that I will have sooo much fun writing this! Hopefully you'll enjoy reading it too! ^^

Feel free to comment/critique. I'm pretty sure there are some mistakes hidden in there somewhere because I have been writing this in the dead of night and there are probably things in this that I could write a bit better lol

Until next chapter~~!


	2. Chapter 2

No, I do not own Hetalia or any of the story's characters.

And get ready for POV changes

"What happened here?" a fireman asked.

"T-There w-were people running all over the place!" a frantic waiter said. His hair was a mess and his uniform was covered in food stains. A group of waiters and waitresses were huddled on the curb of the street, traumatized by what had happened. On the other corner, a news crew was already reporting.

"We are here at the scene where it is said that this restaurant caught on fire after a chain of unexpected events. At around 7:50 PM, nearby witnesses saw a large crowd of people fleeing the restaurant when fire was seen shooting out of the open windows. Though the restaurant is severely damaged, there have been no reports of injury…"

In the background of the footage, there was a couple hurrying off to their car to escape the catastrophe…

((Three days earlier))

No one knew what was up with Lovino.

Why was he so happy? A whole group of his co-workers huddled in Herakles' cubicle and observed Lovino's suspiciously beatific aura and cheery whistling.

"Maybe it's his birthday…" Herakles pondered.

"Maybe he had an orgasm…" another worker suggested.

"Do you think he might have gotten a promotion or something?"

"A promotion? Does he even do anything other than rant about how stupid we are?"

"Who knows? Maybe he's secretly really good at organizing shit,"

One looked as if they had solved the Da Vinci code, "Wait, if he got a promotion, does that mean he's moving upstairs?!" The rest of them gasped in excitement.

Lovino was able to ignore the pestering whispers behind him. With his earplugs and cheery whistling, all of the crap that annoyed him in that office was completely out of his mind. He had to work, but not on organizing the data about Hetalia's latest product's popularity, but on planning his perfect date with Carmen.

He was 100% committed to this. He was so committed, in fact, that he had even changed his computer's wallpaper to tomato flowers. They were tomatoes because Carmen had expressed that they made her happy, and they were the flowers because they were pretty. He also didn't want anyone to think he was weird for having tomatoes as hisbackground.

"The Tomato Place…" Lovino muttered to himself. It was a local restaurant that his brother had told him to look up.

"_Even though it sounds tacky and generic, they have some of the best food in town!"_ he remembered Feliciano saying to him.

A webpage showing a nicely lit building made of beige bricks appeared on the screen of his computer. It sure did look nice. It was described as a fancy restaurant, perfect for a nice dinner for two. They had just opened a month ago and were already getting great business. Lovino clicked on the link to make reservations as he heard what Feliciano said repeat in his head…

"_I'm so excited for you, _fratello!_ It's a matter of time you finally got a date again! I remember the last time you went on a date with that one girl who actually ended up being a—"_

"AGH! Dammit, why'd he have to bring that up?!" Lovino yelled, smashing his hand on the keyboard, which made the screen say "Reservation for: scvdfbd"

"Oh, ok guys, he's back now," a voice from behind said.

Huffing, Lovino continued with the reservation process. Where did Carmen want to sit? Judging from the photos of the restaurant's interior, the booths looked extra cozy and intimate. But why sit in a booth when there was the option of eating on the rooftop? Under the night sky? What could be more perfect?!

After submitting the reservation, Lovino leaned back in his chair. Now that the restaurant was settled, he needed to think of more ways to make Carmen remember their night together. How would he know what she liked? Wait, why didn't he ask Julchen! Though he hadn't made any effort to make her like him in any way, shape, or form, Julchen was one of Carmen's closest friends in the office and probably knew exactly what Carmen would like!

Ready to get his answers, Lovino took out his earplugs and turned his chair to the side. To his disappointment, Julchen's seat was empty. That was strange; Lovino distinctly remembered her showing up in the morning. She had been running late and hadn't bothered to put on her shoes before she sat down in her chair.

Where'd she go?

((Meanwhile))

Julchen was beyond bored and tired, so the last thing she wanted to do was get up. She had spent all of last night watching the rerun marathon of Bad Girls Club, which turned out to not be the best thing to do on a Tuesday night. She had overslept the next morning and had to run to work barefoot because she missed the bus.

After getting to work, she was hounded with a million and six texts from Carmen, telling her to meet her at her desk before break. If it weren't Carmen, then she would have turned off her phone and went straight to sleep at her desk.

"What's up with her anyways?" Julchen grumbled to herself. All of her texts and messages had made it seem like something crazy-exciting was happening. What could have happened on a Tuesday to make a girl ridiculously ecstatic? Julchen was shuffling in her shoes when she was suddenly pulled to the ground by a surprisingly strong force.

"Ouch!" she yelped, rubbing her backside where she hit the floor. "What the hell was that for?!"

Carmen looked frantic and excited at the same time. "Jul! You gotta help me!" she squeaked, though it was clearly supposed to be a whisper.

Julchen sat up, thinking something was wrong. "Whoa, whoa, hold up a minute! What's going on? And why the hell did you have to text me twenty times in less than half an hour to tell me to meet you here?"

Carmen looked around, her green eyes dashing across the room to make sure nobody was listening to what she was about to say. "I…have…a date!" she finally whisper-squeaked.

Julchen raised an eyebrow. "Ah, is that so? But that still doesn't answer why you texted me so much."

"It's…with somebody from the office,"

Julchen's other eyebrow raised, this time in amusement rather than annoyance. "Ahh, you're going for one of those office romances you've been reading about!" Julchen grinned, her violet eyes glinting with curiosity. "So, tell me, who is it? What floor does he work on? Ooh, I bet you went for one of the big guys on the 10th floor, didn't you? Oh, I knew you could get one—"

"It's…" Carmen interrupted the albino, leaning in to say it in her ear. "…Lovino Vargas."

Julchen paused. Julchen paused as if her life was some video game and someone literally hit pause. She had to process what she just heard. Her best friend _Carmen_. Carmen, with the sexy green eyes, cappuccino sun-kissed skin, and bammin'-slammin' bootylicious body. Carmen who received a love letter from the team leader on the 8th floor. Carmen who accidently wore a tomato brooch in her hair on a day she was hungover and somehow started a new office trend amongst the young interns because she looked beautiful wearing it. Carmen who could probably get any guy in the building. Was going on a date with _Lovino?_ Lovino, as in her _cubicle neighbor?_ Her cubicle neighbor who told her to shut up and die when she asked him what he did to the copier? Lovino who seemed to have aneurysms whenever the girls had lunch break at her cubicle? Lovino who once yelled at the guy across from him for ten minutes straight because he had brought a stray cat into the office? Lovino, that freaking annoying, babbling, Italian mess?

_That Lovino?_

"Ohhh, I get it," Julchen eventually said, her voice a little dazed. "I get it! You were drunk when he asked you out, and now you need me to help you turn him down! Kesesese, you came to the right girl for that…."

"No, Julchen!" Carmen was squeaking again. She never was that good at whispering. "I don't want to cancel it! I'm so excited! But I don't know what I'm going to do! He's so cool!"

Julchen's eyebrows furrowed. "Are we thinking of the same Lovino Vargas?"

"The one you work next to? _Si_,"

"Are you sure?"

"Positive,"

Julchen really couldn't believe it. What did she see in him? She would have asked, but she was a little too tired for that. She just cut to the chase with a sigh. "Alright, what do you need my help with?"

"I don't know what to wear… Maybe you could ask him what he would like…But you have to be subtle...Just talk to him, pleeeease?"

Julchen groaned. The last person she wanted to talk to today was Lovino. "How about tomorrow? I'm about to pass out and I still haven't picked all of the gravel out of my shoes yet."

Carmen's eyes lit up. "You're really going to talk to him?!"

Julchen shrugged. "If you really want to go on that date with him, then to each their own…"

Carmen hugged Julchen extra hard, reminding her how strong she was. "You are the best! Let me know what he said at lunch break tomorrow! We're doing it at Francine's desk!"

Julchen smiled a little at Carmen's beaming face as she walked back to her cubicle. "_Ja, ja,_ I've got this,"

Boom, chapter 2!

It got shortened a little. That was my bad, I got caught up in some school stuff, but I'll try and keep posting regularly! Leave comments as always!


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